Porreco Cup changes don't tarnish history

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Bob Jarzomski mug.ERIE TIMES-NEWS

Did I miss Christmas?

I look at the local college hoops schedule, and I see the Porreco Cup is Friday and Saturday at Gannon's Hammermill Center.

Is this a mistake? Nope.

Gannon plays Notre Dame College at 7:30 p.m. Friday, the 14th of December. Saturday's consolation and championship games, against either Virginia State or 2011 Division II tournament team West Virginia Wesleyan, are set for Saturday evening.

After 45 holiday basketball tournaments, time sure has changed since guys played in short pants.

The 3-point arc. The shot clock. Three officials. A small semicircle under the basket in the ever-changing lane for player-control violations. Eight media timeouts, as popular as fruitcake. Now comes a local sports tradition, but with 11 shopping days before Christmas.

So while the days of an interning Dr. J making a house call and early Hoya Paranoia on Peach and South Park Row were generations ago, also gone are the hoops with holiday spirit and wishes for a happy New Year.

Yet it had to be done.

In 2010, the NCAA Division II presidents created the "Life in the Balance Initiative," which lessened the load for athletes, such as cutting regular-season games to 26 from 27, and mandating a "dead period" during the holidays from Dec. 20-26. Most teams don't wish to practice just one day, then travel to Erie the next to possibly get in a session for the tournament.

Getting an attraction like a Bellarmine, the 2006 Cup winner and 2011 D-II champion, or a Philadelphia -- yes, College Basketball Hall of Famer Herb Magee, who still has friends in Erie from the Philadelphia Textile era, is back for his 46th season -- is very improbable. One less game reduces scheduling flexibility, and the emphasis is on regional records for the postseason selections. Virginia State and West Virginia Wesleyan are in the Atlantic Region, while Notre Dame College is in Ohio, a "touching" state that qualifies on Gannon's region record.

Gannon still could have hosted the Cup on the holiday week this season, but the dead period is going to be changed in the future to Dec. 23-29, which runs right into the tournament date.

It makes sense to switch now.

The Life in the Balance Initiative can't take away the memories that many longtime fans can share, including those fans from out of town who would visit family and friends while catching a game or two.

The two-day Porreco Cup, which began as the Gem City Bowl in 1967 at what was then called the Gannon College Auditorium, or "The Audi," packed the place to see a premier small-college tournament that also included Division I teams from time to time.

In 1969, the University of Massachusetts, led by MVP Julius Erving's 30 points, ended Gannon's two-year run as champions. Funny thing: in the pre-tournament write-up, the newspaper listed The Doctor as "also expected to play for the Minutemen."

Knights junior sensation Glen Summors, a New York native who many (myself included) consider the best local college basketball player ever, left the team after that game. Summors, who died in 2006 at 57, returned for a monster 1971-72 season and finished with 1,822 points and an unreal 1,819 rebounds.

Summors played in the 1971 championship game when St. Francis (Pa.), led by guard Kevin Porter, beat the Knights.

Porter had a fine NBA career, and his 29 assists with the New Jersey Nets in a 1978 game was the league record until Scott Skiles broke the mark with 30 in a 1990 game.

In 1974, Erie car dealer and sports entrepreneur Lou Porreco took the reins as sponsor of the tournament, which in that year produced perhaps its most memorable and important game.

Long-established Gannon, which went on to make its first Elite Eight appearance that season, met Mercyhurst for the first time. The Knights edged the Lakers, in just their fourth season under program builder Dick Fox, 70-67 in a 1974 final game that shook the Audi to its foundation. Oh, by the way, that epic game on a Sunday night came just after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders for the AFC title, and went on to win their first Super Bowl.

A lot of lives hung in the balance around here that day.

In 1975, Gannon beat Navy, then upset rising D-I power Georgetown under coach John Thompson. The Hoyas would win the NCAA title in 1984.

After Central Michigan took the Cup in 1980 before Division I schools disappeared from D-II home schedules, powerhouse D-II clubs paid visits, including 1982 Cup champion and defending NCAA winner District of Columbia, and in 1988, Cup winner and three months later D-II champ North Carolina Central. In 1991, guard Juan Rankin's 3-pointer at the buzzer gave Gannon a 54-51 win over No. 1 Virginia Union, which later captured the D-II crown.

A sidelight: The Knights went 22-6 but were not selected for the Division II tournament.

Certainly, the Porreco Cup maintains good Division II college basketball, but obviously it will never be the same.

So Merry Christmas. And don't wait until the last minute to get your shopping done.